Craig Wright will have to attend the court proceedings in Miami, Florida, on June 18. In an order passed by US District Judge Beth Bloom on Monday, 10th June, the court rejected a motion filed by Wright, seeking permission to continue mediation or allow his attendance via video conferencing.
In the CASE No. 18-CV-80176-BLOOM/Reinhart (S.D. Fla. Dec. 27, 2018), filed by Ira Kleiman, the plaintiff, Wright is the primary and sole defendant. The plaintiff alleges that her father, David Kleiman and the defendant, Wright together mined and held Bitcoins via W&K Info Defence and Research LLC, a company listed in the US.
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Ira has accused that after her father’s death in 2013, Wright unlawfully transferred over 300,000 BTCs which belonged either to David or W&K. She states that since Wright was the sole key holder after David’s death, he manipulated the private keys held by W&K and the deceased partner, to transfer all the Bitcoins to his own wallet.
In the summer of 2016, Wright claimed that he, along with David, created Bitcoin, the apex cryptocurrency. Since then, the claim has been consistently rejected by the major industry movers, including Changpeng Zhao of Binance, and the famous crypto supporter, John McAfee. Wright is an Australian citizen, currently residing in London. In its order canceling Wright’s motion, the court said,
This action has been pending since February 14, 2018. ECF No. [1]. Mediation has been scheduled, see ECF No. [30], and rescheduled by agreement of the parties. ECF No. [86]. After a review of the record and the submissions by the parties, the Court does not find that a continuation of mediation is warranted. The Court further agrees with the Plaintiffs that personal appearance by the parties will promote meaningful participation at mediation.
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Therefore the Court has ordered that the motion is denied and canceled. It further directed that all the parties to the case must be present on the next hearing scheduled on June 18, 2019.
